Temporus - Sonic Shadow Fanfic
by 9noiroux6
Summary: An unfortunate turn of events during one of Eggman's 'great ideas' sends Sonic and his friends to a different version of their world. Cities are run by groups of individuals just trying to survive. Violence is everywhere and uncertainty dictates every move. How can they survive, change this place, and most importantly, get back home? Romance, violence, and power rule here. ;)
1. Flower Field

Sonic's POV

I was seeing things. The emeralds, all set up in a circle, and in the center, the Master emerald. Eggman caught us at just the right time... Shadow and I were on opposite sides and the Master emerald was perfectly between us. I don't know how Eggman pulled it off, but he did. Whatever he used to activate the emeralds was strong.

I felt so powerful for a minute there, when the chaos hit me. Weightless. I could feel it too strongly, though, like an overdose. Everything turned so bright, and then everything just turned to black.

I wake up to Amy shaking me, yelling. I'm sleeping so nicely though...

"Ugh.. what?" I ask her. There must be a really good reason for waking me.

"Sonic! Wake up! Are you okay?" she asks, her voice so shaky it finally occurs to me something isn't quite right. I open my eyes and sit up, and woah, I am heavy. Sitting up takes so much effort, I'm stunned when there aren't weights on my chest. Why am I laying in a field? "Oh, Sonic! You're alright!" Amy yells, far too loudly for me. She hugs me and I fall back, unable to stay up with any extra weight on me. "It'll be alright now that you're awake!" she smiles.

She must not know how tired I am. Suddenly I hear another familiar voice - a much less cheerful voice at that. Knuckles is yelling.

"What did you do!? What just happened? Do you have any idea how close I am to breaking your bones-"

"You ignorant little beast! How was I to know what would happen? You're alive, aren't you? Be grateful for that!" Eggman yells back.

Wait, Eggman?

With immense effort - this fatigue better wear off soon - I sit up again, and sure enough, there's that spherical scientist, looking mildly annoyed.

"What's goin' on?" I ask, noticing Rouge a few feet away standing next to Shadow. She's holding his Inhibitor rings, and he doesn't look amused in the slightest. Amy grabs my arm.

"Don't you remember?" she asks me. "Eggman used that crazy electrical machine and zapped both you and Shadow right by all of the emeralds!" She stands up, still holding my arm, and she pulls on me to try to make me stand up. I take a deep breath, and push myself up, expecting to fall. Somehow I stand, although shakily, and my world tilts a little before I find balance.

"So why are we here?"

"We don't know! We all just showed up here. It's gotta do something with your chaos control, right?" she asks me. I'd shrug if I felt the energy to. Another yelling voice - Tails.

"Shut up, both of you! None of us need your petty arguments! Let's figure out where we are first, and then you can plot each other's death!" Eggman and Knuckles both cross their arms in a nearly funny way, turning away from each other. "Thank you!" Tails mutters. The fox sighs deeply, then scans our surroundings. After looking around at the field we're in, he turns his attention back to us. He looks first at Shadow, then at me, then back and forth between us.

"You both look like you need to sleep. For a few days."

"I feel like it." I tell him. I look back at Shadow. He absently touches his inner wrist, where an Inhibitor ring normally is.

"You okay?"

"Never better," he replies. The look in his eyes is of veiled tension. He looks at Eggman. "What did you just do?"

"If I may speak without being interrupted," Eggman shoots a glance at Knuckles, then tells all of them, "you all need to know that was an experiment. I didn't know what was going to happen."

"So you just did it anyway, potentially killing all of us?" Rouge asks. She looks ready to throw one of the rings in her hand at the man.

"I am a scientist, Rouge! How can anything be learned without taking chances?" he combats. "This is beyond argumentation - we simply need to discover where we are. Believe me, I don't want to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary with you nuisances!"

"None of my devices are operating. I can't tell you where we are. I'm guessing the chaos energy was so strong, it caused all of these to malfunction." Tails says unhappily, looking over all of the watches and mechanisms on his wrists.

"Perhaps if we..." Eggman's voice loses my attention and I notice Shadow's not paying attention either. Shadow turns away from the group and takes a few (diffident) steps. He'll never admit it if he's just as fatigued as I am, but I'm glad to see I'm not alone. He's looking at our surroundings, and I copy him.

The mass of skyscrapers in the city in the distance looks just vaguely familiar. Shadow looks at me and says quietly, "Sapphire."

Sapphire City? We went there once or twice before, on missions from the agency. He must be wrong though. I look back at the skyscrapers, looking for something that resembled Sapphire City. It seems... weird. Shouldn't we be able to hear the city sounds from here? Something about it seems off.

"...well, look at what's around us." Rouge says, drawing my attention back from the city. "The mountains are too far away for most of us to get to by night, and I'm sure none of us feel like swimming across an ocean." The mountains.. I look behind me, and there they are. If Shadow's right and that's Sapphire City, these mountains would be.. what were they? The Endro-something Chain? Shad and I could be there in no time - but I guess none of us should leave Eggman around on his own. He'll probably send us to a whole different planet somehow!

"The city is clearly our best bet," Knuckles decides. "There's gotta be something there."

"Doesn't it seem a little... odd?" I ask, earning some looks. Shadow just looks like he's waiting for me to say something. Maybe he agrees. "I guess this is all weird, though. If we're gonna go, let's go before I pass out."

- If anybody finds this even remotely interesting, please let me know! :) Thank you!


	2. Sunset One

Shadow's POV

I noticed it too, the difference about this city compared to the Sapphire City it seemed like. Sonic isn't wrong - there's something about this place that nearly makes the other option of swimming across that ocean seem like a good idea.

"You sure you're okay?" Sonic asks me. He just came closer to me, and we're lagging behind the rest of the group for once. Tails keeps looking back at us every few minutes, making sure neither of us drops dead. Sonic continues, trying to get me to be honest. "I feel alright, just drained of energy. How far do you think we've gone?"

"I'm fine. I don't know... far." Although Rouge had only just given them back to me, I take the Inhibitor rings off of my wrists. I'm not going to bother with the rings on my ankles - we're already far back enough. I hold the two out to Sonic, already feeling the energy in me adjust to the difference in balance. "You should wear these for a couple hours."

Sonic looks at them like they're chaos emeralds. I wonder where those went, anyway..

"These will have an effect on me?" Sonic asks, taking them anyway.

"They should. To a lesser extent, your blood is mixed with chaos energy. It just needs to balance out again. Wherever we are, the travel definitely burned up the majority of the chaos in us."

Sonic doesn't put them on yet, but he looks at my bare wrists, then up at my eyes. "You rely on these more than I do."

"A few hours without them won't kill me." Sonic really just needs to take them. I don't have a tenth of the patience necessary to deal with his indecision right now. "If you'd prefer to feel half-dead for the next several days, give them back. Otherwise, stop worrying about me and help yourself."

"Fine, fine." Sonic slides the rings over his hands - the gold looks strange on his color - and as they always do, they immediately adjust to his wrist. "Woah.." he says, putting on the other one. "These are weird."

"They'll help. Not that I'm suggesting you do, but the more energy you're exposed to, the calmer yours will be. So being near me will help, too."

Sonic laughs and makes Amy glance back and smile. "You can't just admit you want to hang out with me a little, can you?"

"Right, that's it."

As the group approaches the city, they all realize there definitely is a difference between this city and the city they thought it was. No sounds of cars, of people, no lights, nothing to indicate life. On the outside of the city, they could see the windows of the skyscrapers. An unnatural number were shattered, especially closer to the ground. There were a few cars on every road, but none of them - not even one - looked like it had been touched in years. The brilliance of the setting sun on the ocean to the side of the city contradicts the heavy, tense atmosphere the city gives off. It's abandoned, or it very well looks that way.

"This... is Sapphire City, isn't it?" Tails asks, scanning the skyline. "Look, there's the Carrion Tower. And there's the museum!" he announces, pointing at the different places. "But..."

"That's great. Now we're in another time line or something. Nice job, Eggman." Knuckles growls, glaring at the old scientist.

The scientist laughs, then returns the bitter tone. "Another time line, eh? I'd say that would be an impressive feat! Time travel... I could use this to my advantage. Imagine the recognition I'd receive!"

"Time travel?" Rouge questions. She looks at me, then at Sonic... then back at me. "Is it possible?"

That question makes all eyes turn on me, as if I know all the laws of the universe.

Tails looks at me inquisitively. "Technically, you already do, Shadow. Every time you use chaos control, you're slowing time and you move as an individual faster through time than everything else."

"That's on a much smaller scale than what this appears to be," I tell him. Them. Whoever.

Robotnik speaks up again. "Looks like you and Sonic have a new trick!"

"You could've killed them, you know!" Rouge flies up and shoves Eggman back. "Or any of us! Don't you know by now how unpredictable your little experiments can be?"

I feel something drop slightly in my chest at the word, 'experiments', but I brush it off.

"We're all aware there's something weird going on about all of this, but it's going to be dark soon," Sonic says, surprisingly becoming the voice of reason. It's still weird seeing the rings on his wrists instead of mine, but I can tell his energy level is already rising. "I say we find somewhere to stay for the night, then we'll try to figure out what's going on in the morning."

"Sounds like a great idea to me!" Amy beams as she looks directly at Sonic. Could she stop sucking up to him for even thirty minutes?

"I'm fine with that," Tails says. "You guys?"

Rouge lands next to me and sighs. "As long as I don't have to deal with this idiot," she says, gesturing toward the scientist. He seems to roll his eyes, but no one can tell because of his dark glasses.

These streets seem deserted, but I find it hard to believe there's not a soul around. So many buildings are exposed, so many doors are broken in... it reminds me of a war zone. There could be anyone in these buildings, watching us enter their territory. I definitely don't feel like we're alo-

"Thanks, by the way."

"Hm?" I look over at Sonic. His green eyes flash up at me, and he's smiling like nothing in the world is wrong.

"Thanks. These actually are helping a lot." He holds his arms out in front of him, turning his wrists to see the light from the sun reflect off the golden rings. I notice the smallest scratches on the rings, remembering how some of them got there. "They're like wearable steroids!"

I smile slightly at the comment, and reply, "I'm glad they're working on you, too."

"S'that why you're so fast? These things?" he asks, elbowing my arm just enough to be annoying.

"You'd have to ask a dead man why I can do what I can do." I say, shrugging slightly. I look at Sonic because I know he's interested in Gerald and my past. I rarely mention it. He just returns my gaze, develops a smile, then shrugs.

"How about this place?" Amy asks generally, pointing at (what used to be) a nice looking hotel down Kingsford Avenue.

Sonic looks up at the hotel. Looks accessible to me.

"Why not?" Knuckles says, and we all follow Tails and Amy down the Avenue to the hotel. This whole thing feels too surreal...


	3. Glass Hotel

Sonic's POV This hotel was beautiful! ...once.

Unlike most of the buildings in the city, a lot of the windows on the ground level are actually intact here. Massive marble steps bring us up to the grand glass doors, which are decoratively covered in handles that are a paler gold than Shadow's rings on my wrists.

"Is it locked?" Amy asks.

Knuckles tests the doors, and when they hold shut, he pulls a fist back, and crushes the center of the doors with one powerful punch. Both doors bust open with a sound of metallic breakage, and they swing fully open with your typical haunted house squeak. "Hah, not anymore." Knuckles boasts with a smug grin as he decides to be the first to enter the hotel. I hear Shadow mutter something in annoyance behind me at the display.

Once everyone has filtered into the hotel, we all checked out the lobby. A motionless gold fountain sits in the center of the room, and pillars of glass and gold are absolutely everywhere. Two spiral staircases lead to what must be rooms on either side of the lobby and what used to be reception is directly ahead.

"I can't believe this place is still in such good condition," Rouge says. "Compared to the rest of the city.."

"It seems safe to me, at least for tonight," Tails decides. He checks the watches on his wrists again, and frowns. They're still not working.

I nudge him. "Hey, you'll have some time tonight to check those things out. If anyone can fix them, you can!" I offer him a smile, and he returns it.

"Wherever we stay, we shouldn't completely split up," Amy says, winking at me. Ugh.. the moon could be colliding with the planet and she'd still be trying to get us together somehow.

"I agree. As long as I'm not with Eggy," Rouge says. She looks at Tails. "I don't trust him one bit. He's the reason we're stuck here."

"Don't flatter yourself, Rouge. I'd rather turn myself in to the authorities than be trapped in a room with you," the scientist replies.

"Look," Tails says, hoping to stop them right there. "Eggman, we need to work on finding out how to get back to our normal home. I'll stay in the same room as you, because the sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can get out of here."

I look from Tails to Eggman... then at Knuckles. If Eggman decided to play any tricks, Tails shouldn't have to deal with it alone. At least one other person should be there to keep him safe. "Hey, I think you should stay with them. You never know when they might need your strength!" I smile, seeing the flattery work like a charm.

"Fine with me."

"And Shad, you mind if I'm with you tonight? Even you said it'd help get both of us back to our normal strength if we're around chaos."

Shadow looks at me for half a second, like he was considering suggesting something else, before he says, "fine." -

All three of the rooms we chose to stay in for the night are next to one another. Shadow and I are in 106, Rouge and Amy are in 107, and Knuckles, Eggman, and Tails are in 108. It seemed like once we all agreed on our plans, night fell immediately. Suddenly without much to do, all of the insanity of today hits me.

"Shadow," I say. He's on the opposite side of the bed, staring through the window at the voiceless city.

"Hm?"

"Where do you think we are?"

Shadow doesn't look over at me. "Sapphire City."

"You're positive?"

"Seems just like it, doesn't it?"

I shrug, and finally he lays down normally on the bed and glances at me. "That chaos control wasn't normal. The scientist may have really made us jump through time."

I contemplate Shadow's words. "So.."

"Depending on what time we're in, either something terrible happened to the city to drive everyone out, or everyone's dead for some other reason and have already decomposed-"

"Ech, that's just gross."

"It's possible." Shadow boredly traces the red stripe on his right wrist. "Whatever happens in the future will happen, but maybe if we can figure out how to get back, we can prevent it from turning out this way."

"Well, how exactly did we get here? It's hard to remember." I think back to what Amy said when we first showed up here in that field. "Something about all of the emeralds, both of us, Eggman did something."

"Ask Ivo. Sounds like you have the basic idea, though. Maybe using the same method will get us back, or at least give us enough energy to try."

"We'd have to find all of the emeralds here. Including the Master emerald. And Eggman would have to redo whatever he did.." I sigh, knowing just finding one emerald here might take a while. We could be stuck in this weird place for much longer than any of us want to be.

"We've overcome worse. At least we're all alive, all here." Shadow mumbles, turning away from me. "We'll be back soon." I look over at him and I'm shocked to see he hasn't grown wings. That was way too positive a statement to have come from him. I could tell he was getting really tired, really quickly... and I felt it hitting me, too. We both drift to sleep after a few minutes of silence. We'll figure something out tomorrow...

* * *

AN: Hey, thaaankkk yooouuu to any readers! Hopefully I have held your attention up to this point, because things are finally going to start happening starting next chapter! Everything so far has been WAY too short. :) PLEASE feel free to leave reviews, what you want to see more of, less of, etc. I'm just trying to get better at this! :)


	4. Questions

Shadow's POV

I woke up enveloped in the comfortable heat of another person. I open my eyes and the first color I see is blue. I try to push myself back, but his arm is over my stomach and it's.. weird.

"Sonic," I say. He doesn't react, just has the ghost of a smile. He's probably dreaming about something stupid. Slightly louder, I repeat myself. "Sonic."

"Mmh.." The blue hedgehog's arm tightens around me and he sighs slowly.

Nope.

I (sort of) gently push his arm off of me and slide off the bed. He mumbles something but I don't hear any actual words. Standing up and catching a glimpse of the window revealing the silent city below, I'm suddenly hit with a wave of negativity. We're still stuck here in this broken version of Sapphire City.

Judging by the small amount of sunlight in the sky, I'd say it's between 5:30 and 6. Thinking someone else is possibly awake, I consider leaving the room. I look at Sonic and notice the arm that he had around me is now pulled up to his chest. He's still wearing the Inhibitor rings and I'm starting to feel their absence.

I can't shake the feeling that someone else is down there, and aware of us. I look back out the window, and I still see nothing on the streets visible from here. We'll find something today.

I found Tails and Robotnik in the lobby. They're trying to repair Tails' chaos detector, and it turns out they have the same idea Sonic and I vaguely came up with last night. Recreate the situation that brought us here and maybe we'll be able to get back.

Tails and I are casually talking about chaos emeralds, detecting them, his machines.. when Robotnik's frustration finally gets the best of him.

"I simply cannot deal with these inferior devices!" He slaps the detector down on the table between us and throws his arms up. "Tails! How is it that you can create all sorts of devillish machines to destroy all of mine, yet your simple little chaos detector can't survive strong amounts of the very substance it's meant to detect!?"

"It hasn't ever been exposed to that kind of energy!" Tails protests, then his eyes darken. "Inferior!?"

"Inferior! Surely you know what that means?"

"Of course! I'm just impressed you know how to use it properly in a sentence!"

The scientist shakes his head. "Being here with you must be some kind of celestial punishment.."

Tails rolls his eyes. "Like something so worthy would bother wasting time on you," he mutters.

Eggman snatches the device from the table and continues trying to repair it, and Tails looks at me with extreme exasperation.

"Looks like you're both doing well," I tell them. I'm willing to guess they've been having these short arguments throughout the night.

Within the next hour, the others woke up and found us in the lobby. Sonic sees me, smiles, and the first thing he says is, "You could've woken me."

"I tried," I tell him simply. Any effort is still effort, I guess.

He collapses next to me on the couch and the proximity reminds me of this morning..

"We need to go check out the city. We've gotta find something somewhere to tell us where we are," Sonic says.

"Or when we are," Tails adds, focusing on the mechanism in his hand.

We all decided to go out into the city as a group, leaving Tails and Eggman at the hotel to keep working on the damaged sensors.

The sky is just as clear as yesterday, but the wind has picked up a little. It's actually a beautiful day, and if we weren't stuck here in this place, it might actually be enjoyable. Sonic looks like he's enjoying it anyway.

His arms are open to the oncoming wind and he keeps making stupid whooping sounds. Rouge turns to him.

"You realize if there are threats in the city, you're telling them exactly where we are?" she asks.

"Bring it!" he answers.

We continue our aimless trek, and despite his seeming indifference, it looks like Rouge's threat actually made Sonic shut up.

Maybe it was her warning, maybe it was the fact the buildings were starting to look more and more destructed as we entered the center of the city.

It would be nice to have some kind of weapon, because I guarantee that if anyone else is here, they have plenty.

We could all feel the atmosphere in our group darken.

"Guys-" Knuckles says suddenly, tensing up and putting his arms out to stop us. He is staring dead ahead. I feel the chaos in me rush with adrenaline, instictively inviting me to fight. Chaos is insane, and mine likes violence.

We all zone in on whatever just moved down the road. I see the vague outline of somebody.. what is it? Suddenly the figure dashes back into shadows, and we all stand there for a second.

"Did you all see it?" Knuckles asks, still tense.

"Yeah, do you think it was a threat or someone just lost like we are?" Amy wonders, shying closer to Sonic. "I wasn't expecting that!"

Rouge looks at Sonic and I. "Should we go back? If there's one person, there has to be more. Maybe they're not people we should be messing with."

"We haven't figured anything out yet," Sonic says. "If we go back now, all we're gonna have is a wasted trip and still no clue where we are."

Sudden gunfire wakes us all up. We no longer have a decision to make.


	5. First Blood

Sonic POV (warning - one real expletive 3 )

Well, I guess there's our answer!

The second we hear the first gunshot, we all spring into defense.

"Ambush!" Knuckles yells, much to my demise. I look around us - where did these people even come from!? We were paying attention, weren't we?

A dark figure jumps down from a second floor broken window and charges at me - some guy with a silver metal bar, and he's swinging it straight at me. I duck and he passes me, but he's quick. He turns around and I barely have time to catch it before it hits me. My palms sting immensely, but that's better than my mouth. I hold tightly onto it and the guy shoves me onto my back, pressing the bar down over my throat.

This guy is strong like Knuckles! I press as hard as I can against the bar, and my arms begin to burn. The half-second I see a window, I catch him off guard and manage to kick him in the stomach. He flips over me, and the metal bar drops between us. We both flip off our backs and scramble for the bar, and I get to it first. It's lightweight for its size, and I hit him hard in the ribs with it. He grabs his chest and falls, and it seems like he's down for now.

"Sonic!" Shadow calls, sounding like a warning. I turn around - maybe someone's behind me - an see someone far off aiming a gun straight at me. I jump and hear a gunshot nearly at the same time. I feel no pain, and I'm worried about who was hit. I land and the shooter isn't there anymore.

"Shad-"

"You shot my brother!" I hear a new voice scream, and I snap my attention to the voice. A smaller guy than the one whose ribs I likely just broke jumps onto Shadow and pins him to the ground, slashing him across the face with a knife.

My heart nearly explodes.

I don't know how Shadow got a gun, but if he hadn't, I'd likely have a bullet in me right now. He must've been busy keeping that guy from shooting me, and now he's on the ground, under some guy who is holding a knife over Shadow.

I run as fast as I can and I see him raising the knife up over Shadow's chest, and he begins bringing the knife down hard - I tackle him with as much force as I've ever tackled anyone before, and we both roll several yards away on the street. I fortunately end on top, and the knife skids to a halt within reaching distance. I grab it immediately, noticing the deep red color on the blade, and hold it against this idiot's throat. Gravel and dirt is covering him, and I know I probably look just as bad. I couldn't possibly care less about my appearance right now.

"Don't fucking move!" I yell down at him, seeing fear and anger in his pale green eyes. I hold him down forcefully, almost surprised at how strong I felt, and I look for the others. Amy and Rouge had one of the others down on the ground, Knuckles is keeping the guy whose ribs are broken down, and obviously there's this guy under me. "How many were there!?"

"I just saw four!" Rouge tells me. "Shadow shot the guy over there," she says, pointing at a car. Looks like the bullet went straight through two windows and I guess must've hit the guy behind them.

I stare down hard at the guy under me. "I swear, if you try to run, or hurt any of us any more, I'll make sure you and all of your friends regret ever seeing us. Stay down."

I get up off of him slowly, feeling angrier than normal in these kinds of situations. I hold the blade of the knife toward him and glance over at Shadow, who is sitting up in the center of the road. Blood is covering the ground beneath him and his entire cheek is the color of his eyes. It's hard to tell, but there's another wound in his chest. I give the green eyed guy another look and walk over to Shadow, who starts to stand up.

"Hey, hang on. Chill here for a sec," I tell him. "I want to see how bad these are."

"He missed," Shadow tells me. Blood is falling in a line from the corners of his mouth. Hopefully that's from the wound on his cheek only. "He was aiming for my heart. He missed."

I futilely try to brush enough blood off of his chest and shoulder to see where the wound is, but it's too difficult to tell.

"You're positive?"

"Pretty sure."

I try to feel his pulse. It's racing, but only from adrenaline. "Let me know if you feel dizzy, worse, better, anything. Don't lie. I need to make sure you're fine. Alright?"

"Yeah."

"Promise."

"No." I give him a look saying 'Are you serious?' and he smiles at me, and it's reassuring, but creepy because he's covered in his own blood.

"I'll take that as a yes." I hate his stubbornness sometimes. "I'm gonna check on that other guy. Thanks for getting him for me. Don't get up yet."

I stand up and pick up the gun Shadow lost hold of when that green eyed guy jumped on him, and I start walking toward the guy he shot.

Nerves prickled through me as I approach the car. Either this guy's dead (and we have to deal with his brother) or he's waiting to shoot whoever comes close. Me.

As I get closer, I decide to try being open. "Hey, if you can hear me, I'm not gonna try to hurt you. Just trying to see if you're alright. You guys got one of us, too..." I don't hear any responses, and I stop on one side of the car. "Seriously, I'm not a threat unless you are."

"Then put your gun down," a pained voice demands. "Here's mine." A black gun skids across the sidewalk on the other side of the car. I set mine down on the hood of the car and decide to step around.

"You okay?" I ask. I come around the car to see a white and grey hedgehog, with the same pale green eyes as his brother. He has one hand up against the single wound in his chest, and one thick line of blood is running down from it. He looks at me like I'm the one who shot him, but he seems a little less edgy when I crouch down to check the wound.

"I was going to kill you," he says casually. I almost laugh at the honesty. "Who shot me? The black and red one."

"His name's Shadow. Why?" I'm surprised this guy lets me check out the wound, which seems non-fatal. He tries to straighten up so the wound is easier to see, and he winces.

"'Cause he's good at shooting. He's quick as hell. If he forgives me and neither of us die, maybe he could teach me something."

Wow, this guy just went from trying to kill us to trying to become best friends. He's either way too quick to begin trusting, or he actually has dark motives.

"Well, I'll warn ya. He's not too chatty with strangers." I stand up when I decide he's not gonna die. A huge part of me just wants to get back to Shadow anyway. I look back at Shadow and the others. Of course Shadow got up, and now Rouge is helping him somehow. Looks like she's checking out his wounds and keeping him steady. This guy's brother is just sitting on the pavement where I told him to stay, and the other two are being closely watched by Knuckles and Amy. That one guy is still holding his ribs. "'Specially the ones that try to kill his friends."

"Look, I'm sorry. You guys seem alright. You just can't be too careful around here most days," he says. He slowly tries to stand up, and when he does, he looks towards the others. "You said one of your people were hurt too?"

"Yeah. Shadow." I tell him, a little bitterly. I walk over and picked up his gun and I grabbed mine from the hood of the car and we walked back over to the others. "Whatever you're trying to protect, we probably don't care much for it anyway. We're just trying to get back home."

When we reach the others, I watch the green eyed guy go over to his brother, the one who keeps eyeing me nervously, like I'm gonna shoot him if he dares to get up. They're talking, and both seem glad when they see they're both (sort of) healthy.

"Sorry 'bout your ribs," I tell the guy who had the metal bar. Now that I can actually look at him, he's a dark red wolf with grey eyes. He just stares at me.

"Sonic, we need to get him back to Tails," Rouge tells me, gesturing vaguely toward Shadow. Shadow sighs, not adoring the attention. My eyes linger on the wound to the right of his mouth, a few inches below his eye, and I follow the immense trail of blood that is covering half of his body.

"It isn't that bad," he says, without much energy. "What about them?"

I look at the four people around us. "Bring them back with us I guess. The green eyed guy seems alright, actually. We could get some info from them. I really don't think they're gonna try to fight us again."

"Let's get back then," Rouge says. She nudges Shadow. "You're never gonna admit it, but you really need to let Tails take care of these wounds."

So, we all started back toward the hotel. It's weird to suddenly be alongside people who just tried to kill you, but we're kind of stripped of options right now.

I can't help but keep looking at the blood on Shadow. If I didn't tackle that guy the second I did, he would've sunk that knife straight into Shadow's heart.

That's too close of a call.

* * *

AN:

Okay, these chapters are way too short and stuff. Hopefully you guys like what's happened so far! Pleaaaaseee leave a review, positive, negative, whatever it is! :) I hope it's not too bad, haha.

Who do you think these new people are? :o

Thanks for reading! :)


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